Monday, April 9, 2007

The United Kingdom Ministry of Defence bans any more of the 15 Royal Navy sailors and Royal Marines held captive by Iran from selling their stories to the media reversing a previous decision following widespread criticism. //www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200704/s1892963.htm (Reuters via ABC News Australia)

Wednesday, April 9, 2003

U.S. forces seize control of Baghdad, ending the regime of Saddam Hussein.

Sunday, April 9, 1967

The AFTRA strike is settled just in time for the 39th Academy Awards ceremony to be held, hosted by Bob Hope. Best Picture goes to "A Man for All Seasons".

Oral arguments begin in the landmark U.S. Supreme Court case Loving v. Virginia, 388 U.S. 1 (1967), challenging the State of Virginia's statutory scheme to prevent marriages between persons solely on the basis of racial classifications.

Wednesday, April 9, 1947

Thursday, April 9, 1942

The Japanese Navy launches an air raid on Trincomalee in Ceylon (Sri Lanka) the Royal Navy aircraft carrier {{HMS|Hermes|95}} and Royal Australian Navy destroyer {{HMAS|Vire|D68}} are sunk off the country's East Coast.

Wednesday, April 9, 1941

Tuesday, April 9, 1940

The Faroe Islands are occupied by British troops, following the taking over of Denmark by Nazi Germany. This action is taken to avert a possible German occupation of the islands, which would have had very grave consequences for the course of the Battle of the Atlantic

Opening day at Jamaica Racetrack features the use of pari-mutuel betting equipment, a departure from bookmaking heretofore used exclusively throughout New York state. Other NY tracks follow suit later in 1940.

Sunday, April 9, 1939

African-American singer Marian Anderson performs before 75,000 people at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., after having been denied the use both of Constitution Hall by the Daughters of the American Revolution, and of a public high school by the federally controlled District of Columbia.

Thursday, April 9, 1896

Thursday, April 9, 1868

Emperor Tewodros II of Ethiopia massacres at least 197 of his own people at Magdala. These are prisoners incarcerated, for the most part, for very trivial offenses, and are killed for requesting bread and water.

U. S. President Abraham Lincoln is shot at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C. by John Wilkes Booth. Doctors attend to the President in the theater then move him to a house across the street. He goes into a coma upon being laid diagonally on a bed.

Monday, April 9, 1860

French typesetter Edouard-Leon Scott de Martinville sings the French folk song Au Clair de la Lune to his phonautograph producing the world's earliest known sound recording (however, it is not rediscovered until 2008).

Wednesday, April 2, 1231 (Julianian calendar)

After a bizarre weather phenomena of yellowish clouds and dust chokes the air around Hangzhou, Song Dynasty, China, obscuring the sky and sun, a fire breaks out at night in the southeast of the city, which continues into the next day. Fighting the flames is difficult due to limited visibility. When the fires are extinguished, it is discovered that an entire district of some 10,000 houses in the southeast of the city were consumed by the flames.

Italy: Emperor Frederick II promulgates the Constitutions of Melfi (also known as "Liber Augustalis"), a collection of laws for Sicily.

Spain: The Castillans reconquer the city of Quesada.ref name=linehan1999{{cite book|title=The New Cambridge Medieval History c.1198-c.1300|year=1999|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|isbn=0-521-36289-X|pages=668–699|author=Peter Linehan|editor=David Abulafia|page=673|chapter=Chapter 21: Castile, Portugal and Navarre}}